Malaysia, the world’s largest market for sukuk, plans to improve its legal system to become an alternative location to the U.K. for resolving international Islamic finance disputes.

The goal is to position Malaysian “laws as the law of choice for Islamic finance transactions globally,” the central bank said in a statement Aug. 30. Disputes about compliance with Shariah principles are a risk to the industry’s expansion, it said. Persian Gulf companies have traditionally based cross- border contracts on U.K. law to take advantage of the country’s developed legal system and neutrality, according to Unicorn Investment Bank BSC in Bahrain.

We see a conflict brewing here. Either Malaysian law will become more and more Shariah compliant or else the Shariah scholars will come down on Malaysia…